


no time like the present

by misstaken



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Sugar Daddy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-15
Updated: 2017-02-15
Packaged: 2018-09-24 16:13:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9769823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misstaken/pseuds/misstaken
Summary: “It's not an engagement ring,” he said, “I couldn’t pick one out for you anyway. Your taste in jewelry is too weird.”Part of the Sugar Daddy Ardyn AU-verse. Takes place six years after "waiting on you".





	

**Author's Note:**

> It's only a matter of time before you realize that you need some fluffy AU Ardynoct to go with your sad tragic canon Ardynoct. Blame all the fluffy FFXV Valentine goodness that was in my Twitter TL this week if you have to...

Noctis looked up from his seat on the park bench, watching an orange and a yellow leaf twirl in tandem in the breeze as they fell to the ground. The trees had changed colors early this year, and some of the branches were already bare skeletons standing amongst their blazingly colored brethren. Autumn was his favorite season, especially the dog days of summer when the days were still long and warm but the nights cool enough to curl up with a beer in front of the fireplace.

He checked his phone to see if he had missed a text from Ardyn. They had planned to spend their entire Saturday together, but Ignis had called Ardyn's personal cell phone from London at five o’clock in the morning with an emergency. Noctis was amenable to rescheduling their entire day, always enjoying the opportunity to sleep until noon, but Ardyn insisted that he could solve whatever problem Ignis had before lunch. Ardyn kissed him goodbye while he was still buried under the covers, and he took the opportunity to sleep in, play video games with Prompto for a little while before he had to leave to visit his in-laws, and take a leisurely walk from their Chelsea condominium to Madison Square Park, where Ardyn was to meet him.

There was a blonde woman playing with two dogs in the grassy dog run on the other side of the benches where he sat. Noctis watched the two dogs chase each other about and randomly thought it might be nice for him and Ardyn to have a dog someday; he had always liked animals, although Ardyn and his temperament seemed better suited to a cat. Maybe after he finished graduate school and had more time on his hands, he’d see how Ardyn felt about the idea. Noctis heard leaves crackle and saw a shadow block out the warm afternoon sun, and he looked up to find Ardyn standing behind him at the park bench. Ardyn leaned over Noctis from behind and caught Noctis’s lips in a quick, familiar kiss.

“Done already?” Noctis asked. “You’re only fifteen minutes late.”

Ardyn smirked and shook his head. “I told you we would be done this morning. Our earnings report is due on Tuesday and Ignis found numbers that didn’t agree with him. All it took was reviewing a few contracts and all was well. I think sometimes he doesn't know what to do with himself in the absence of my constant harassment.”

Noctis raised his eyebrow. “Life without your harassment? It’s a hell of a lot easier, that’s for sure.”

“But so much less enjoyable, don’t you agree?” Ardyn took the seat next to Noctis on the park bench and draped his arm over his boyfriend’s shoulders. “Come on, Noct, admit that you’ve come to love my harassment over the last six years.”

“I can love you and not love your harassment,” Noctis rolled his eyes, then glanced over his shoulder in the direction of the Shake Shack. “Want to get some lunch?”

“Really? Shake Shack, again?” Ardyn replied. “One of these days that fast food’s gonna catch up with you. It’s all downhill after thirty, they say.”

“You’ll always be older than me, so I’ve got nothing to worry about,” Noctis grinned. “I’ve got dibs on being the hot young guy in this relationship.”

“Then I guess it’s good that I’ll always be the wealthy older gentleman financier,” Ardyn responded without missing a beat. “And it’s good that I still find your smart mouth endearing and sexy, even with all this around it.” He gently rubbed his fingers along Noctis’s close-cropped beard, a new addition within the last year, and Noctis felt a chill run down his arms. He loved it when Ardyn stroked his beard and kissed his face; as much as the other man superficially complained, he knew Ardyn liked it as much as Noctis enjoyed the feeling of Ardyn’s soft stubble.

“Let’s go eat,” Noctis said, abruptly standing up. He extended his hand to Ardyn, and the auburn-haired man clasped it in his own and pulled himself to a standing position. Noctis stuck his hands in his jacket pockets, his fingers taking inventory of their contents. He felt his wallet, keys, lip balm, and the box that he’d checked on four times before he left home to walk to the park. During the twenty minute hike from Chelsea to Madison Square Park, he’d kept his hand firmly clasped around the small rectangular box, and before Ardyn took his hand in his own, Noctis quickly ascertained that it was still where it belonged.

As they walked towards the Shake Shack, Noctis started to feel as nervous as he was that fall afternoon when he and Ardyn had first had lunch together. He wasn’t sure that he was going to live to see the next morning after that meal, and if someone had asked him back then if he could ever imagine calling Ardyn his lover, his partner, or something more, Noctis would have laughed hard enough to pull a muscle.

By now, Ardyn knew Noctis’s Shake Shack choice by heart - a double cheeseburger, fries, and a salted caramel shake - and he went to place their orders while Noctis scanned the area for a table. The exterior had been rearranged several times since their first meeting, but he found a location set away from the other tables and watched Ardyn ordering and paying for their lunches.

Instinctively, Noctis stuck his hand in his pocket again, running his fingers over the box again. He took a deep breath and swallowed, taking out his lip balm and running the plastic tube over his lips more than necessary, trying to calm his nerves. Ardyn stood by the second counter waiting for their food, checking something on his phone, and Noctis envied his easy posture and relaxed face. Noctis’s false customer service smile had fallen out of practice since he had stopped waiting tables and started going to graduate school full-time at NYU, although he admitted that he smiled for real much more since he said goodbye to Hammerhead. It was a compromise they had made when Noctis finally agreed to move in with Ardyn two years prior. Ardyn was relentless in urging Noctis to quit his job at Hammerhead, and while Ardyn certainly didn't need a dime from Noctis, he refused to feel like a kept man, or that he wasn't contributing to their household. Without the burden of rent or time commitment to working at the restaurant, he was able to pass the GRE and was on schedule to finish his master’s degree within six more months.

“Thoughtful today,” Ardyn sat down across from him at the wire table, setting their food down on the table. He sighed as Noctis pulled the lettuce and tomato off his cheeseburger. “Some things about you never change, Noct,” he commented. “One of these days, you’re going to order a salad and I’m going to die of shock.”

“Meat eats green stuff so I don’t have to,” Noctis said, taking a long drink of his shake and wincing at the sudden headache. “How’s Ignis doing, by the way? Is he going to be back across the pond any time soon?”

Ardyn swirled a French fry in ketchup and popped it in his mouth. “He says London suits him and he loves being in charge of the office there, but he misses New York-style pizza, especially at one o’clock in the morning after being tangled in the sheets with us all night,” he said nonchalantly, grinning at Noctis. “He’ll be back for the holidays, if not sooner. I’m sure we can work out a Christmas miracle for the three of us.”

“That’ll be awesome,” Noctis said, licking salt off of his fingers before shoving his cheeseburger in his mouth, taking a huge bite. As he chewed, he stared wordlessly at the man across the table from him. Despite years together Ardyn still made his heart race. Ardyn was turning forty-five in December of this year and had visibly aged very little since he and Noctis met. The smile lines framing his mouth were slightly deeper and he had a few more wrinkles around his eyes, but he hadn’t begun to show grey in his hair. Noctis, on the other hand, had already found two or three silver strands in his thick black hair and a stray gray or two in his beard, coinciding perfectly with his thirtieth birthday.

Ardyn set his portobello burger down on the black plastic tray and wiped his face with a napkin. “You know you only ask me to come here when there's something we need to talk about.” He looked Noctis straight in the eye, leaning his elbows on the table and peering at him suspiciously.

“I know,” Noctis said, his heart picking up pace, and his hand dropped down to his pocket again. This all seemed so easy until it was actually showtime. To cover for himself, he fished out his phone instead of the box and set it on the table, attempting to keep his cool. “I, uh, did want to talk.”

“I assume it’s some kind of discussion we can’t have at home?” Ardyn sipped his drink and waited for Noctis to make the next move. “Because if you're finally amenable to buying a sling, I'd rather we research in a more private location.”

Noctis sighed exasperatedly. “God, just because I want to talk to you, it doesn't always mean I want to discuss your crazy sex ideas.”

“You like my crazy sex ideas.” Ardyn grinned. “Okay, I'll be serious. Tell me what's on your mind, Noct.”

“So, yeah. Anyway,” Noctis said, his mouth dry all of a sudden. He had been thinking calmly about this conversation for a few months, but somehow in this moment his stomach was filled to bursting with butterflies. “You know...on a day like today, a few years ago…” He picked up his phone again, fiddling with the case as a distraction.

Ardyn laughed, taking Noctis’s free hand in his own. “You’re the same incorrigible romantic that you were back then, you’re just not as afraid to show it anymore.” He kissed the top of Noctis’s hand. “I thought you were uneasy before because you were hungry, but you’ve eaten and you’re still shaking like a leaf,” he said, a rare touch of concern in his voice.

Noctis squeezed Ardyn’s hand, trying to settle his own nerves. He supposed that it was now or never; this wasn’t about to get easier and he wondered why he never had a drink nearby when he needed one. “We’ve been together for a long time, huh?”

“Much longer than I thought,” Ardyn agreed, “I wasn’t even sure you’d come back to my condo six years ago, much less move in with me four years later.” He sipped his drink, letting Noctis lead the conversation.

“If you asked me back then I'd have said you were insane, and sometimes I still think you are, but...it's a good insane,” Noctis continued, disentangling his fingers from Ardyn’s. “Anyhow, I was thinking, while we were at Prompto’s wedding this past spring...that was kind of nice. I’m, uh, glad you came with me.”

Ardyn smirked. “The wine was an insult to grapes, the chicken factory-fresh, and the only thing I liked about that ill-fitting rented tuxedo was stripping it off you when we got back to our hotel,” he commented, pursing his lips. “But I’m sure you mean the inherent sentiment, in which case I’ll agree with you. Prompto and his wife seemed very happy, and I still smile when I think about you drunkenly declaring your undying love for me while we danced to that Coldplay song.”

Noctis’s ears turned red at the memory. “Yeah, well...I...I meant what I said then,” he said, twisting his straw wrapper in his fingers and taking a deep breath. “So, anyway. I thought...maybe we should too. If you want to.” He looked away at a napkin blowing along the ground with the fallen leaves.

“We should...what?” Ardyn folded his hands beneath his chin, a quizzical expression on his face. Noctis could see a hint of amusement behind the confusion and was fairly certain his boyfriend knew what he was attempting to do.

“You know,” Noctis said, tapping his foot against the ground impatiently. During these moments he wished that he had fallen in love with someone kind and considerate instead of Ardyn, who liked to tease him for sport.

“I don’t know, Noct. We don’t have a psychic link, after all.” Ardyn calmly sipped the last of his drink from his paper cup.

Noctis sighed and reached in his pocket for the cardboard box and set it on his thigh underneath the table. “We should...get married,” he said in a shaky voice, and as he spoke, two police cars sped by with their sirens on, followed by an ambulance.

“I’m sorry, I’m not sure I heard you correctly,” Ardyn replied, his eyebrow quirking. “Couldn’t catch what you said over this damn New York City noise.”

Noctis groaned incredulously. He didn’t want to think that Ardyn could be playing games with him at such a time, but after this long it should have come as no surprise. He took the box from his lap and set it on the table. He gathered every gram of courage in his body and met Ardyn’s golden brown gaze. “Okay, fine. Let’s try this again and listen this time. I love you. Will you marry me?” His stomach felt like a solid iron ball tied into a hundred knots as the words rolled off his tongue.

He expected Ardyn to laugh at him, to mock his excessively romantic nature, but instead his lover stroked his stubble-covered chin thoughtfully and ran a hand through his auburn hair. Ardyn pushed his chair back with a quick scrape against the concrete. Noctis’s heart sank, and when Ardyn pulled his chair around to sit next to him, he was sure that Ardyn could hear every blood cell going a hundred miles per hour through his veins. “Is this for me?” Ardyn ran his fingers over Noctis’s on top of the black jeweler’s box.

Noctis nodded, pushing the box towards Ardyn. “It's not an engagement ring,” he said, “I couldn’t pick one out for you anyway. Your taste in jewelry is too weird.” He watched the other man loosen the black ribbon holding the box shut with his nimble fingers. Ardyn opened the box and lifted out the slightly worn Audemars Piguet watch that he had given to Noctis at the beginning of their relationship.

Ardyn glanced from the watch to Noctis, and finally said, “I know that there’s all kinds of alternative wedding traditions nowadays but I didn’t think re-gifting a six-year old watch was the newest way to propose,” he commented. “The hands don't move anymore. Is it broken?”

“It’s...it stopped a couple of years ago,” Noctis said awkwardly, summoning his courage and the lines that he had been rehearsing for a month. “But it’s special because it was the first gift you gave me, even when I didn't want it…”

“I have a jeweler, it could have easily been fixed,” Ardyn said matter-of-factly. “They replace my watch batteries constantly.”

“I didn't want to fix it,” Noctis stammered quickly, lowering his voice so that only Ardyn could hear. “Cause...when I'm with you...it feels like time doesn’t matter, and I want to feel that way forever.” He wished that Ardyn would either accept or decline his proposal, because right now he felt as if he was hanging in limbo, and he wasn’t sure how much more limbo he could take. “With you,” he added lamely, in case Ardyn had any doubt.

“Obviously with me,” Ardyn’s smirk curved into a real smile, the lines around his eyes multiplying and his brown eyes glowing. “You mean a lot to me, Noct,” he said, holding the watch in one hand and brushing the other over Noctis’s soft beard, gently caressing the younger man’s lips with his fingertips. “I do love you, and I would love to be forever with you.” He held the watch in his hand and folded Noctis’s own hand around it, threading their fingers together and bringing their lips together in a kiss.

Noctis felt the knots and iron in his heart and gut melt away and in its place form an almost unbearable sense of light. “Okay,” he said, his face spreading into a grin that stretched ear to ear, “We’re getting married, then.”

Ardyn held the watch in his free hand and glanced down on it, then took Noctis's slim wrist in his hand and fastened the band in place. “We’ll have to get that fixed now, though. Or,” he scratched his chin thoughtfully, “We can pick out a new one. Like an engagement ring, but more useful. I'll get a matching one. That seems rather romantic, doesn't it?” He looked very satisfied with his suggestion.

Noctis peered at Ardyn. “I put a lot of thought into this, you know.” He furrowed his brow, slightly disappointed.

“I know you did,” Ardyn nodded, taking both of Noctis’s hands in his own, “but now that I’ve said yes, if your watch isn’t working, how will we count down the seconds until I can call you my husband?” He kissed Noctis again, and in a similar gesture to six years prior, Ardyn impatiently called his driver while Noctis cleared the table.

The driver arrived and they headed for home, but instead of sexual tension thicker than tar on the drive to Chelsea, the two men sat in the backseat hand in hand, Noctis wondering aloud how Prompto was going to react to the news that Noctis was marrying his sugar daddy, and Ardyn wondering aloud whether they should wear Giorgio Armani or Tom Ford for their wedding attire.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry. Nah, not really.
> 
> "That Coldplay song" is "Yellow", by the way :)
> 
> For visual inspiration go check out owlteria on twitter or tumblr, if you're not already convinced that you need Ardynoct fluff, you will be!


End file.
